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Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

getpolarized.io

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Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#11

Post by silon42 »

tlb wrote: post #7
api wrote: post #2

I think the rise of dark mode is mostly related to really good displays. Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

I used to dislike dark backgrounds, but now I have several apps set to dark mode. But going way back to the 80s, terminals were mostly dark mode. CRTs mostly looked terrible with bright backgrounds until the Mac. I don't know if my own change in preference is due to underlying change in screen technology, or something else. Screen time might affect it too -- maybe people prefer light mode when they're only on-screen…

There was blue mode for a while. I remember using of Norton Commander, Turbo Pascal, where blue mode was the default and quite popular.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#13

Post by i_am_proteus »

silon42 wrote: post #11
tlb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to dislike dark backgrounds, but now I have several apps set to dark mode. But going way back to the 80s, terminals were mostly dark mode. CRTs mostly looked terrible with bright backgrounds until the Mac. I don't know if my own change in preference is due to underlying change in screen technology, or something else. Screen time might affect it too -- maybe people prefer light mode when they're only on-screen…

There was blue mode for a while. I remember using of Norton Commander, Turbo Pascal, where blue mode was the default and quite popular.

And classic Word Perfect 5.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#14

Post by burtonator »

whack wrote: post #10

It seems that their data is mostly coming from their own user base (the discord data is biased as they admitted), which is mostly comprised of programmers and other techies. I don't know how far this generalizes to the rest of society. I personally like dark mode during night time, but almost always prefer light mode by default. There's just something about dark mode that is... gloomy and depressing. It feels like an…

Thanks. I tried to find more data but it's scarce. I would love to get more data for more apps as I think it's definitely biased around people who spend a LOT of time staring at text.

I'm a programmer so spend a ton of time in my IDE. Polar is designed for people that read a LOT so dark mode really matters to them.

When you're reading 100s of PDFs having a dark mode is kind of important!

In retrospect I'm kicking myself not working on this sooner.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#15

Post by willtim »

api wrote: post #2

I think the rise of dark mode is mostly related to really good displays. Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

Light modes were arguably worse on CRTs, especially if the refresh was 60Hz or less. I couldn't take Word for Windows at all seriously until Windows NT and 85Hz CRTs appeared.

I currently use both light and dark themes on Emacs, with a shortcut to toggle between them. Solarised is a great theme for this, as the text colours are the same for both modes. I originally started using a light theme during the day, as so many other apps already do and I disliked the sudden change in brightness when for example switching between Emacs and a web browser.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#17

Post by ilikehurdles »

While I also prefer dark mode overall, the majority of dark editor color schemes strain my eyes more than light ones. Primarily this is because they use really bright saturated colors or solid white text on dark backgrounds, which makes my eyes strain as if they are looking at LED headlights during a night drive. OS X uses nice muted yet distinct colors on both ends of the brightness spectrum. I wish I could find an IntelliJ theme that matches the same spirit.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#20

Post by burtonator »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #17

While I also prefer dark mode overall, the majority of dark editor color schemes strain my eyes more than light ones. Primarily this is because they use really bright saturated colors or solid white text on dark backgrounds, which makes my eyes strain as if they are looking at LED headlights during a night drive. OS X uses nice muted yet distinct colors on both ends of the brightness spectrum. I wish I could find an…

Yes. SOLID white #ffffff on black #000000 is a rough scheme. The whites need to be muted a bit so they're light grey basically.
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